Viacom Launches Broad Decentralized Social Networking Strategy Called Flux
Written by on Thursday, September 13th, 2007 in Ajax News.
It turns out the rumors of a Viacom investment and partnership with social network Tagworld, which we first covered in late 2005, were accurate. Viacom invested a reported $40 million in the company for a minority stake (Tagworld was previously funded by Draper Fisher Jurvetson) and the two companies began working on new social networking products.
Tomorrow morning they are launching the fruit of that partnership - an ambitious new disaggregated social network around Viacom’s MTV, Comedy Central and other brands and associated websites called Flux.
Tagworld cofounder Evan Rifkin and Mika Salmi, the president of Global Digital Media for MTV, walked me through the product earlier this afternoon.
The new service takes technology developed by Tagworld and Viacom’s existing Flux brand and creates distinct social network properties for each of the brands (some are launching now, hundreds are launching throughout the rest of the year). Like Ning, users who sign up for any network (say, Comedy Central’s) can join other networks (like MTV’s) with a single click.
As users add additional communities to their profile, they bring their content and friends with them. Flux is simultaneously a single brand as well as hundreds of distinct, branded social networks.
Note: This post is being updated, screen shots and additional information coming.
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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/156253474/
